Oral history of the Malta Dockyard: Joe Demicoli

(00:30) He entered the dockyard as an apprentice after he passed the examination, where there where around 1,600 others sitting for the exam and only 100 where to be chosen. The apprenticeship was about 4-5 years long and he chose the trade of shipwright. Before he entered the dockyard, he used to go to the St. Joseph Technical school as he had always liked technical and manual work. His father was an  engineer and his uncle  worked in the dockyard as a shipwright. His uncle guided him that a shipwright is of a much better choice due to the work they do and that there are more opportunities for promotions.

Entering the dockyard-Dockyard layout

(02:45) During their first week after entering the yard, they had an induction course where they were shown around the dockyard, he noticed how the workers had different coloured boilersuits, which was explained by the instructor as the different ranks of the grades are recognised through the colour of their boiler suit. The ones wearing a brown boilersuit are the workers, from any trade, the ones with a purple boiler suit are the chargemen (l-imghallem) who is in charge of the guy (gang/team), and the one wearing the white boilersuit is the foreman, who is in charge of the whole project and gives the work to each chargeman of his trade. There was also another person who was wearing a white hard hat, who was the manager, who occupied the higher position than all, which was what motivated him the most and said to himself that, that is what he wants to aim for.

(03:30) In fact, he was always one who showed the most interest towards the trade as he wanted to advance more in his position, even when he was instructed to stay 99 (this was a code allocated to workers that did not have any work to do. As shipwrights, the most important job that they had to do was the taking of templates (galvijiet) as it was an achievement for a shipwright to take and prepare a template of a damaged plate, and see the successful result on fitting the new plate in place after its fabrication at the shop. He liked being given new work as this increased his experience.

Entering the dockyard-Trades (From approval to the departure of a vessel) 

(06:45) He thinks that the shipwright’s trade was one where there was a lot of dangers as they worked in very high places, putting up scaffolding, working in tanks, in enclosed spaces of the double bottom (a very low tank, around 1 meter high, with lot of steel partitions (floors) which had man-holes through which they had to just pass. When they had to go in a double bottom tank, they would carry a lamp with its electrical lead that served a guide in order to follow the same wire when one needs to exit the tank. On this note, he remembers how useful that wire was, as once, they were working on an LNG vessel (which was considered as a dangerous ship due to it having more confined spaces, where a person working in certain spaces it could only stay in one position), and they had to go in to search for a part and if they did not have that wire coming out of the tank’s man-hole, they would have been locked inside the tank and no one would even notice.

(09:30) He also adds how they worked in very high temperature environment, which is then increased due to the protective clothing they used, especially in the summer period. He explains how there were times in summer, that after exiting the tank, they would feel a cooler temperature even though it was a hot summer day. This was because, especially when work was going, the temperature in tanks sometimes reached around 54°C.

He remembers an accident when a welder who was working in a vessel’s tank, died due to lack of oxygen. He added how that safety in the yard was lacking.

Looking back-Skills gained 

(13:15) He talks about how a month before he retired from the dockyard, he signed a contract with a foreign company to start working with them. There he worked on a variety of different vessels even oil rigs as this company looked at the experience, he had in such a sector which he kept telling them that this was all coming from his time at dockyard.

He also added how the dockyard had this particular motto that a job cannot be done without planning, something that he used throughout his whole career, including while working within the foreign company.

Looking back-Reflections 

(15:30) Furthermore, he adds how the dockyard had taught him so much, from the first year he was at the dockyard, including his colleagues from different trades, that anything that needed to be done in his house, he was able to do it himself, even when it came to electrical work and plumbing-they were taught the basic knowledge necessary for everyday needs, and if he could be born again, he would choose to work at the dockyard again.

(25:15) During the Um El Faroud accident (No.3 dock), something he remembers, especially since it was his birthday, and he was a foreman working on another vessel Ain Zalah in No.6 dock. When he was working on the mentioned vessel, there was a bit of an argument with the vessels’ superintendent and the dockyard’s safety officer as the superintendent didn’t want to clean it, as for him it was clean enough, hence he only agreed to be cleaned on the dockyard’s expense-they had work in the tanks, deckhead, aft peak, pump room, amongst others.

The safety officer ordered them to put a suspended staging-a tank which is 60 feet high with scaffolding 2 meters below the tank made on wire, where they needed to make a hole on the deck to put down the wire and suspend it-and on each plank install a lascar cloth (a type of cloth which is fire resistant). At first, Demicoli did not want to do like this as there was this risk that if one of the planks was damaged during the work and no one reported this damage, it would create a dangerous situation someone could get hurt. Eventually he accepted the plan to work as instructed.

The shipwright has a sort of practice that when there was work in a cargo tank, if possible, they would do some hot work in the morning, so that they get the approval of the chemist that it is good for hot work and not just safe for entry. In fact, there were times when they had only permission to work in the approved space, which required a fire watcher to monitor and advise the workers in the case of fire hazard situation. 

(29:30) As he was speaking, he remembered that while working on oil rigs with the foreign company, safety was much stricter. Their Officer in charge of safety stressed that if they break the safety rules they would be dismissed immediately. He had even given them the permission to stop any work which broke the safety rules, even if the company had to lose money. That is how important safety was for them. 

Safety-Health issues (noise, risks)

(34:30) He added about the danger to their health due to the environment they worked in. At the time, workers were not aware of the health hazard that asbestos had. Unfortunately, he also had a cancer which thankfully was caught in time and they managed to remove it. The doctor told him that this cancer was mainly found on people who work in the industrial sector. A situation found in the shipyard, where they were surrounded by a lot toxic fumes during their work. He remembers also, how the wife of one of his colleagues, got asbestosis, which was surprising since she was not directly exposed to asbestos but the doctor told them that she must have inhaled the asbestos from her husband’s work clothes, before she washed them. 

Education-Projects 

(40:00) Planning at the dockyard. Meetings on the ship chaired by the ship manager with all the foreman from different trades, to co-ordinate the work between the different trades in order to follow the planned schedule for the completion of the work. He also added how they planned the work accordingly, for example they would prioritise by starting the work on the underwater part of the ship required for undocking, and then the external jobs considering also the weather conditions. Furthermore, the shipwright foreman had a person assisting called the liner, who was in charge of getting certain materials and other work requirements ready, so that the flow of work is constant, as everything is prepared beforehand. Even before a vessel arrives at the dockyard, the ship manager would have in hand a defect list of the works needed on the vessel, plan a meeting with the teams to coordinated and allocate the works accordingly to the teams and checking and ordering the materials beforehand as well. 

Looking back-Reflections 

(47:45) He had learned a lot from the dockyard, it helped him become the man he is today and raised a family thanks to it. He even passed on what he learned from the dockyard to his children. He wishes there would be other opportunities, courses or education outlets where people who worked at the shipyard could transfer their experience to future and younger generations. Reason for this, is not because they are experts but because they have learned a lot from experience, mistakes and they use a certain technique which would be very useful to know.